Janette Amber

… It’s a Girl …

Janette Amber

October 31st, 1:08 PM

6 pounds 9 ounces

19-3/4 inches long

Janette with Her Proud Daddy

Janette's First Bath

Jessica met her baby sister for the first time that evening after Papa and Nanny picked her up from Jason and Julia’s house. It was late, so they didn’t stay long, but she didn’t seem to take much interest in Janette.

Janette and Jessica with Papa

The next day Janette got to meet her other grandparents.

Janette with her Nana

Janette and Grandpa

After school and a nap, Jessica came back to the hospital for more time with her sister and she showed more interest. She gave Janette the monkey baby toy she had picked out at Target on Sunday and Janette gave her the Tiny dinosaur “she” had picked out for Jessica.

Jessica and Janette with Nanny

Then I had to get a few photos of my Halloween baby in Halloween garb. So even though these next two pictures were technically taken on November 1st, we’re going to say they were on Halloween.

Peapod Janette

My First Halloween

Wednesday morning, my OB came by to give the discharge okay and we had her take a picture with Janette. I forgot to do that with Jessica.

Dr. Landwermeyer and Janette

Janette on the Ride Home from the Hospital

Birth Story: JAM4 decided to surprise us and arrive 13 days before her due date of November 13th. At 4:30 AM Halloween morning, I woke up to use the bathroom. After climbing back into bed, I couldn’t go back to sleep. After about half an hour and 2 contractions, I decided some extra sleep wasn’t happening and went to the study to get on the computer and continued with contractions spaced about 15 minutes apart. About 5:30-5:40, my water broke. At that point, I decided I should wake James up, who got dressed really fast, which is weird considering I was still in my pajamas and was clearly calm about the whole situation. I called my OB’s office and the doctor on call called me back and said I should head to the hospital and she would let them know to expect me. About 10 til 6, I called my friend Lori, my sister-in-law Julia, and my parents. I told Lori she had time to take a shower and then sent James to take a shower too. I got ready to go also. I started washing and slicing strawberries and grapes, so Jessica would have food ready to eat for the day. Lori arrived about 7 to stay with Jessica at our house until Julia could pick Jessica up. Julia called me back and said she would head over and hoped she could avoid traffic. Jessica decided to wake up a little early, about 7:30, and we left shortly after that to go to the hospital. By this point, the contractions were probably about 5 minutes apart. They were definitely noticeable, but more than bearable. Once we arrived at Seton Southwest, the ER admitting person had me answer a few questions and climb into a wheelchair made for someone without hips (or at least it seemed that way). We went up to the labor and delivery unit triage room where my leaking fluid was checked for some component, which was there, and then I was taken to L&D Room 12. The charge nurse had me change into the lovely hospital gown before my delivery nurse arrived. Initially, I was not fond of my delivery nurse. She seemed disorganized and took her sweet time asking her questions, taking my blood and setting up the IV port. She checked and I was dilated to 3 cm (only 1 cm at my last OB appointment the previous Thursday). That was the other thing that bugged me about my delivery nurse. It was painful when she checked my dilation, almost like she was trying to push my cervix up to my belly button, which I had not experienced when in labor with Jessica. Finally, after getting the first part of the Group B Strep antibiotic, monitoring JAM4 and my contractions for a little while, I was able to get off the monitor and walk some laps around the L&D unit. By this point, it was probably about 10 AM and the contractions were about 2 minutes apart and were definitely intense. They seemed much more intense than the contractions I had with Jessica’s induced labor (read my Pitocin-induced turned cesarean delivery birth story of Jessica here). I decided the drug free approach was not going to work, so we went back to the room and my delivery nurse pumped me full of fluids via the IV and started prepping for the epidural. The anesthesiologist arrived and the epidural block was installed about 11:30 AM at which point I was 7 cm dilated. Afterward, I did not feel pain, only pressure, during the contractions. I also became extremely cold and shivered uncontrollably, which is common from the IV fluids. I started feeling pressure more and more. My delivery nurse checked and I was dilated to 9 cm. Soon after, I told her I was having feelings to push. My OB arrived about 12:45 PM (I had actually started to wonder if I was even going to see her). Everyone started getting ready. I asked my delivery nurse what I should be doing during pushing since apparently our childbirth class and book reading information had flown out the window of my brain. My delivery nurse said okay, we could do a practice push and then she was like nope, she could see Janette’s head of hair. When everyone was ready, I started pushing. It took 4-5 contractions and probably less than 10 minutes and Janette entered the world at 1:08 PM. My OB told James she could tell me what sex the baby was (we had opted not to find out in advance) and James was so flabbergasted by the experience that he couldn’t talk for a minute and I had to tell him “Don’t keep me in suspense” before he could say “it’s a girl.” JAM4 was placed on my belly and rubbed dry before being taken to the bassinet. I delivered the placenta and then my OB sewed up my tear. Meanwhile, I had James take photos of JAM4 getting weighed and cleaned up. Since JAM4 turned out to be a girl, we didn’t end up naming her until the end of the day. We had settled on a list of 5 first names and about 8 middle names about 2 months before delivery, but just couldn’t make up our minds. We ended up discussing her name most of the afternoon before deciding on Janette Amber.

I’m glad everything turned out so well, and we had a great time taking care of Jessica. Janette looked bigger in the picture with your doctor. I think Dad took similar pictures of you kids with my doctor.

Janette does look much bigger in Dr. Landwermeyer’s arms as opposed to her in the arms of everyone else, but Dr. Landwermeyer isn’t very tall and she is very fit and trim, so maybe it is just an illusion that Janette looked bigger.

Janette is such a cutie ! I’m glad we could be there to see her and spend time with Jessica. I enjoyed all of the pictures. Jessica will make a good big sister. The picture of her and Janette with your Dad is just precious.